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ever heard of brain-drain? When scientists start leaving their country because they can’t find an environment to do work well, get good jobs, continue with research, or feel appreciated and supported. well, I think we’re experiencing a sex-drain.

Thanks to the government scholarships, more and more girls are finding excuses to do their BS/BA … MA , MBA, PhD and whatever else they can think abroad! A few are getting married and staying there, so are getting jobs after uni…. Most will just try to extend their time abroad as long as possible. Trying to delay the inevitable. coming back… to no public transportation, a strict guardian system and nooooo driving, amongst other things.

More and more of my girl friends are leaving… less and less are coming back. Many will marry a guy who works abroad, or a S… where in many situations having to move countries to get married is a minus, to these girls it’s a plus (or not much of a problem). YAY! no more restrictions! Yay! I can move around freely! Yay! I can take a bus, train, or taxi if I don’t feel like driving! yay!!! Europe is the best, in my personal opinion. I love the metro. Makes me feel anonymous. Just an ant amongst millions of tiny ants. so cool.

But really, Am I the only one noticing this? whenever a girl is not happy, she starts making plans to “Do her masters” or “prepare her PhD”. And it’s ALWAYS in the States or Europe or Lebanon or Dubai even Malaysia. I once read somewhere that Saudi has the highest percentage of female PhDs in the world. If that’s true, then I betcha my lucky charm this is why.

One day… the guys in this country will wake up and wonder where all the smart, beautiful, educated fun women went to. Sorry bubbas, by then It’ll be too late to get them back.

I’ve been out of the country quite often lately (thank God!) and in my travels, I’ve met a wide range of people from around the world. One common Question I get from them is this: “Don’t you think things are changing and you’ll be able to drive soon??”

I used to say yes, soon Inshallah! That was back in the naive old days…. Now i shrug and say “I’ve been hearing rumors that they’re going to allow us to drive next year for TEN years now. So I’m not holding my breath anymore.”

I still think it should happen, sooner rather than later. But honestly I remember being 16 and thinking I’ll drive myself to college everyday, haha. fat chance. That never happened. At college i used to think I’ll drive myself to work… now I’m becoming more realistic and hoping I’ll mayyybe drive my kids to school. Or watch THEM drive. That would REALLY blow. watching my teenage kids drive when I’m too old to enjoy it. But at some level I’m sure I’m a big enough person to be happy for them and proud that they got to practice a freedom at home that I was never allowed to. Right? RIGHT?! lol, yeah. I hope so.

I’ll probably ground them by taking away the car keys.

So back to our topic… yeah. not anytime soon I think. Sorry to be the one to burst your bubble, to all ye hopefuls out there. I’m just trying to be realistic. If you hear or receive one of those rumors via sms or bbm or email or phone call, do what I do. Laugh. It’s a joke. Or a mean prank buy some heartless jerk. But you can’t let them see that they’ve gotten to you, so just laugh!

I had my own driver. yep, no sharing. ALL to myself. My family was living in another city, so i enjoyed a year of not having to co-plan my every outing.

But that’s not why I’m writing this post…

The reason behind writing it, is that my driver was a nice kashmiri guy. clean, polite, friendly. For a whole year, we got along fine (can you believe it??!)

End of that year, on my last day of school, He tells me he’s going on vacation in two days, and he’s really excited, because he’s going to get married. Naturally, i congratulated him and was very happy for him, wished him the best of luck on his new life. He then said “yes, I’m so happy, she’s beautiful. She looks exactly like you!”